Role in IT decision-making process:Align Business & IT GoalsCreate IT StrategyDetermine IT NeedsManage Vendor RelationshipsEvaluate/Specify Brands or VendorsOther RoleAuthorize PurchasesNot Involved

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Negotiations Not an Art, Its a Tool You Need

Negotiation's not a mysterious art that only the soulless can master. With the right instruction, anyone can be a competent negotiator, with vendors, with colleagues, even with the kids. (CIOInsight.com)

Every managers tool box contains a jumble of tools he or she uses every day, some jetsam that never quite matched the job at hand and, if the owner is clever, a little cup over to one side for pieces that are rarely useful for their designated purpose, but are invaluable for other jerry-rigging.

All really successful managers keep "negotiation" in that cup, no matter how much they loathe using it.

Even if the mere idea of negotiating, especially with non-technical people, gives you the willies, there are a handful of techniques you must have to be effective.

You dont have a lot of choice about it, so you might as well get over the fear and the yuck factor of negotiation, and make it easy for yourself and successful for your employer.

In most IT management jobs, negotiation is a set of skills one employs formally a couple of times a month, with a vendor, another department manager or a staffer.

But you can apply the same techniques to all kinds of situations that arent formal negotiations. Motivating an employee both to work overtime and do a good job with it. Dealing with your kids. Getting a deadline pushed out.

Because negotiation, done properly, is a method for coming to a conclusion thats not only acceptable to both parties, but also one that leaves both open to further dealings together.

This demands skill at calculation and some human skills, though in small portions.

This is one of the rare areas in business skills where there are books you can read and come away sufficiently equipped to do the job adequately.

One of the best books on negotiation is, as far as Im concerned, one of the four most useful business books of all time. The bad news is, its out of print. The great news is the author has published it as an e-book and is giving it away for free.